


A Very Scranton Christmas

by tjk5141



Category: The Office (US)
Genre: Christmas Party, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 00:32:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19414750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tjk5141/pseuds/tjk5141
Summary: There’s a new girl in town at the Dunder-Mifflin Paper Company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. After downsizing at the Utica Dunder Mifflin branch, Y/N was transferred to be the new receptionist at the Scranton branch, as theirs had recently quit. Young and single, with not many friends in Utica anyways, Y/N had no trouble making the 3 hour move to Scranton, finding a good sized and decently priced apartment for her and her dog. Utica had been miserable, and she was just hoping that this job would be more enjoyable, and that she could make friends or even start a relationship.





	A Very Scranton Christmas

Setting: Present day Scranton, Pennsylvania, Winter/Christmas time

I opened the heavy metal door and entered the office complex, lit with pale fluorescent lights and poorly decorated with holiday lights and a small Christmas tree. It reminded me of my last job, which wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for. Being transferred to the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin was the perfect excuse to start all over, and try to have a better life. Utica was boring, and the people there were no better. It wasn’t home at all, so it wasn’t hard to leave, and I jumped at the Scranton offer. Scranton didn’t look much different than Utica, but at least here, I could try and make friends.

As I reached for the door handle of Dunder Mifflin, the door forcefully swung open, nearly hitting me. “Woah, sorry!” A loud voice called from in front of me. “You must be Y/N, I’m Michael Scott, Mr. Scott, your new boss,” he rambled, holding out his hand for a handshake.

“Um, yes, Mr. Scott! That’s me.” I responded, slightly disoriented from his excitement. He began laughing as he shook my hand and continued laughing harder and harder until it became more of a wheeze. I stood, still in the middle of the doorway, holding open the heavy door. 

“Did you guys hear that?” He asked the employees, who all sat typing on their computers or taking phone calls with blank expressions. Nobody moved or even looked up. “She called me Mr. Scott,” he continued to laugh entirely too hard.

Embarrassed, I thought maybe I heard him wrong and said the wrong name, even though I knew his name was Michael Scott from the transfer papers and emails. “Oh, I’m sorry, did I hear you wrong or something?” I instinctively blushed awkwardly. 

Still laughing, he caught his breath and said, “Nobody calls me Mr. Scott, it’s just Michael. First day prank!” I forced a slight laugh, and finally followed him through the door. I take a second to look around the place while Michael walks to my new receptionist desk. “Man, I knew the Utica employees were slow, but I didn’t know they were this slow!” He made himself laugh all over again.

“Uh, excuse me?” I looked over at him, slightly offended but more weirded out. 

“Just a Utica joke, right? Utica sucks, Scranton rules!” He joked, putting his thumbs down. Yeah, this was definitely the Michael Scott I heard about from the people in Utica. He was even stranger than I had imagined. “We’re real jokesters around here, you’ll love it, right guys?” He motioned to everyone, but again, no one even flinched. 

“Okay,” one man sighed, standing up from his desk and walking over to us. “Michael, I think there’s an email waiting for you about a new offer from that one place?” He said, clearly lying, and pointing to a door that I assumed was Michael’s office.

“Oh, right, thanks for reminding me Jim! I don’t know about Utica but business sure is booming here in little old Scranton, right Y/N?” He laughed as he walked away.

“Sorry about him, you really will get used to it. It’s Y/N, right?” He smiled charmingly. 

“Yeah, that’s me, and you’re Jim?”

“That’s me.” He looked to be about my age, and looking around, I assumed he was the youngest in the office. He was pretty handsome, and seemed friendly enough. He started to point out the other workers, telling me their names and pretty odd details about them that definitely indicated that none of them were normal. “That’s Dwight, he comes from a long line of beet farmers, and, you know what, I’m sure he’ll tell you all about himself. And then back there, that’s Toby from Human Resources. Michael hates him for absolutely no reason really. Actually, I believe his exact words are that if he had a gun with two bullets and he was in a room with Hitler, Bin Laden, and Toby, he would shoot Toby twice.” He simply laughed while I was kind of terrified. 

“Oh my god... Seriously?” 

“Oh, definitely… Oh, I know that sounds bad, but really, you’ll get used to it, it’s fine.”

“Is it?” I laughed, slightly afraid. 

“Well no, but yeah. You know. You’ll probably feel like the only normal person in the room most of the time. That’s pretty much how it was with Pam and I… Always making fun of everyone and feeling like we were the only sane people in the world all day long.” His tone changed slightly and the smile left his face as he talked about her. I assumed they were close friends, and her departure was hard on him. From what I read, the old receptionist, Pam, got married and her and the husband moved up to New York.

“So, you’re normal too?” I asked him, hoping he would smile again.

“Well, I’m about as close as it gets.” He did smile. “By the way, the office Christmas party is tonight after work at the warehouse downstairs. You might wanna change into something a little more festive if you plan on coming, or else the party planning committee will be overly upset,” he whispered, pointing to the women he identified as Angela and Phyllis earlier. “I’ll keep you by my side, and make sure you make a good impression on everyone, if you want of course.”

“I would love that,” I blushed. I wondered if he was flirting with me or just being nice.  
“Great, I’ll see you later then, Y/N. Really nice to meet you.” He shook my hand and walked back to his desk, and I sat down at mine for the first time, and started pondering how I would decorate the space, but also thinking about Jim. I was glad he was around.

At 5 o’clock, I drove home and changed into the most festive outfit I could find, which wasn’t very festive. Nobody in Utica really had holiday parties. 

I spent most of the night by Jim’s side. He introduced me to everyone, and they were all fairly nice, despite their quirks. I watched them do their gift exchange, which I couldn’t participate in because of the short notice, and I admired how everyone looked like they were genuinely having fun, something I wasn’t used to, sadly. 

After Jim got tired of being around everyone, we found an empty table to the side and sat down with our drinks, pretty much just talking about our lives and getting to know each other better. I really enjoyed talking to him. As long as he was around, I figured Scranton wouldn’t be so bad at all. 

At the end of the night, he offered to walk me out to my car, and I gratefully accepted. We stopped in the hallway beside the door, to talk a little more before going out in to the cold night. 

“I’m really glad you’re here. I think it’ll be a lot of fun to have you around, Y/N.” He smiled, taking my hand nervously.

“Yeah, I’m glad I’m here too. Thank you for helping me have a good time tonight.” I grinned, inevitably blushing. 

“Right back at you, the parties aren’t usually this enjoyable at all. I had a lot of fun.” 

“Me too.”

Jim laughed nervously, and started to lean in, so I did the same, my heart beating out of my chest. Just before we could kiss, the door swung open in front of us, and Jim looked up, his face lighting up in a way that I hadn’t seen before. 

“Jim?” A voice called from the doorway.

“Pam,” he responded, his focus completely gone from me, like we were suddenly strangers again. “What are you doing here?” I turned around and saw the woman that Jim had been talking about earlier that day. 

“I’m here for you,” she grinned, and walked toward him.

Maybe Scranton wouldn’t be so perfect after all.


End file.
